Social media account linked to Pope Leo XIV criticized Vance, Trump over immigration

A social media account under the pope’s name repeatedly criticized the Trump administration — and especially Vice President JD Vance — in the months and years before assuming the papacy.

A series of posts under an account for Robert Prevost — now the Bishop of Rome and newly anointed as Pope Leo XIV — shows the Chicago-born Cardinal reposting an op-ed criticizing Vance on his interpretation of his faith, and the strict immigration policies that Vance along with President Donald Trump have touted.

POLITICO has not been able to independently confirm the authenticity of the account. The Vatican press office, the Vatican’s embassy to the U.S, the Midwestern Augustinians and the diocese in Chicago and Peru did not respond to questions.

The account in mid-April reposted someone else’s rebuke to Trump’s meeting in the Oval Office with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, and pointed to an op-ed by auxiliary Catholic Bishop Evelio Menjivar of Washington, D.C., highlighting the suffering of migrants summarily deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador.

“Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed?” the op-ed that Prevost reposted reads.

In a more pointed example, the account in February posted an opinion piece from the National Catholic Reporter, a liberal-leaning Catholic newspaper, titled: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

Catholics are the single largest Christian denomination in the United States, and Trump heavily courted Catholics in key states in order to win the 2024 presidential election. Trump also named several Catholics — in addition to Vance — to high-ranking Cabinet positions. Pope Francis, who died on April 21, regularly criticized the Trump administration and at one point pointedly scolded Vance for his interpretation of church teaching around love.

In several tweets dating back to the 2016 presidential campaign and Trump’s first term in office, the account demonstrated a strong opposition to the death penalty and to Trump’s rhetoric, while signaling support for gun control and a more welcoming immigration system.

“It’s time to end the death penalty,” the account tweeted in March 2015.

In 2017, the account retweeted a post by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy (D), in which Murphy pressured his fellow Senators to act on gun control and wrote, “your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers.”

In that same year, the account retweeted a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemning hate in response to the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

And it reposted several tweets in May 2020 expressing sympathy for the family of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man whose killing by a police officer touched off massive protests that summer.

“We need to hear more from leaders in the Church, to reject racism and seek justice,” the account wrote in May 2020.

People also rushed to read the tea leaves of the new pope’s electoral history. A person with his name and birthdate, registered to vote in the Chicago suburbs, cast ballots in the 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2024 general elections.

The person also voted in the 2012, 2014, and 2016 GOP primaries, which Republicans highlighted to claim the new pope as one of their own.

Shia Kapos contributed to this story.